"Performant" is not a word

It’s common in the tech sector to come across people who don’t write terribly well. In many cases, it’s because English isn’t their first language, and they should be congratulated for writing it as well as they do, but over and over I find people without that excuse who still can’t effectively explain what they do. (Hint: this is useful when it comes time to convince other people to pay them to do it.)

My favorite example in recent years has been the fake word “performant”. This word is used as an adjective applied to something which performs well, i.e. runs quickly or efficiently. But it’s not a word; it’s just jargon, most often used either by people who want to sound knowledgeable or people who simply don’t know any better. In fact, because it usually forces the sentence into a less active form (“The framework is performant” rather than “The framework performs well”) it actually makes the point weaker.

If you want to say something performs well, say it, don’t obscure it with silly jargon.